Disclaimer- I still don't own Get Backers. I just like to take the characters
out for a spin every once in a while.

Wilhelm's Manuscript

Chapter Eight: The Boy With the Evil Eye

By A Girl Named Goo

"Um...if anyone has an idea, right now would be a really good time
to put it in action," Emishi announced as they were lead down yet another
corridor. Wilhelm wasn't with them, but somehow the guards surrounding them
knew their way around the labyrinth.

No one said anything, although Clayman, Kadsuki, and Ban all seemed to be deep
in thought, pondering their current situation and trying to find a way to get
out of it. "Trying" was the operative word in this case, as it was
very hard to think on a moment's notice with a gun being pointed at your back
by men that were immune to anything you could try to do to them.

They were all herded rather roughly up a staircase that had been concealed
by a wall, Himiko once letting out a surprised yelping sound as a gun was jammed
into her back. She reached behind her for her bottles of perfume, but Clayman
gently pulled her hand away from them, shaking her head. Himiko understood what
she meant: if she tried to attack, the guards would fire and things would get
messy.

As they were manuevered through still more corridors, fear started to subside
and annoyance had started to set in. This seemed to be a common reaction to
anything that Wilhelm Grimm did. Ban wondered if she knew that letting people
dangle for too long just ruined the frightening effect. Chances are even if
she did know she didn't care.

Another door was opened, and everyone prepared to be lead down still another
corridor. Instead the guards gathered around the door, gesturing with their
guns for the group to walk in. They all hesitantly walked into the room, Ban
lingering behind for a moment before he was shoved in by the butt of a gun.
Before he could turn around to see who had done it the door was slammed shut
and locked with an audible click.

"Well, that's reassuring," Emishi noted, looking at the door. Everyone
else turned around to look at the door as well. There was no doorknob, and it
had been painted to match the decor of the wall.

The lighting in this room was sparse, but enought to see the murals on all
of the walls. They were several gruesome scenes from fairy tales, of the little
girl in Juniper Tree recoiling in horror as her brother's head fell to the floor;
of Bluebeard's wife opening the door to a room to see a huge vat of blood and
the corpses of his other wives hanging above it; of the devil chopping off the
hands of the farmer's daughter; of the sister in Twelve Brothers being burnt
at the stake; a particularly graphic depiction of the wolf in Little Red-Cap
eating the grandmother...the horrible murals only seemed to get worse the closer
to the small, neatly-made bed they got. Directly above the bed was a verse:

Ban's eyes fixed on the mural for a moment before he began to translate it
outloud. "'My mother, she killed me. My father, she ate me. My sister,
little Marlenichen, gathered together all my bones, tied them in a silken hankerchief,
laid them beneath the juniper tree, kywitt kywitt what a beautiful bird am I.'"

No one else spoke. They continued to survey the room instead. On the carpeted
floor were many kinds of toys scattered about. At first they appeared to be
strewn around at random, but upon closer examination there was obviously a pattern:
one pile was all dolls and stuffed animals, one was all boats and cars, one
was all cards and board games, one was all books, et cetera. A further examination
showed that the toys were further organized by their color. In the center of
the room were several papers and crayons spread out. The papers were covered
in seemingly shapeless doodles that everyone in the room knew probably weren't
all that they seemed at first glance.

Finally their group survey of the room ended as all of their eyes locked on
the corner. They almost missed him at first. His form was so tiny and he seemed
to disappear into the shadows. He was wearing all black and hugging his knees
to him, and with his head down his ebony hair blended in with his outfit. Only
a tiny pair of very pale hands gave away that the dark little ball in the corner
was a person.

"Is that...?" Ginji asked, letting the question dangle.

"I think so," Ban said.

Breda nodded in response to the question. "Solomon?" she asked softly.

A pale face appeared above the dark knees. He was obviously Wilhelm's son.
His features were softer from childhood, but he had the same basic shape to
his face and his hairstyle was pretty close to her's. His left eye was also
the same amythest color as his mother's. But what caught Ban's attention was
his right eye. It was gas flame blue, and oddly familiar to him..

Breda had begun to approach him, but the boy said something in German that
froze her in her tracks. "Was sagten Sie?" she asked him softly.

The boy swallowed and looked at the group of now eleven people around him.
"Bleiben Sie weg!" he screamed, covering his face.

"He said not to touch him," Ban announced to everyone behind him
before turning around and looking down at the boy again. "Ich will Sie
nicht verletzen."

"Lügner!" Solomon shouted.

"I'm not lying," Ban said in Japanese, before catching himself and
translating what he'd said.

"Lügner!" Solomon screamed, and Ban suddenly realized the look
in his blue eye was a very familiar one. Only he realized it a moment too late...

"Don't look in his eye!" Ban screamed, but before everyone could
heed his advice they suddenly felt themselves being pulled somewhere else...

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Himiko slowly climbed to her feet, looking around at her surroundings. They
seemed so familiar: a small kitchen bathed in sunlight. A door that lead outside
and another that lead to the hallway. Just out of curiosity she looked down
at herself. Her chest was smaller, and she was wearing a loose-fitting, pale
T-shirt. Ban had always teased her about it, how it did nothing to compliment
her "figure". Ban...

Himiko was suddenly overcome with the urge to find Ban. There was something
she needed to tell him and Yamato. She excitedly ran to the hallway, throwing
open the door. "Ban! Aniki!" she cried out...and then she froze in
her tracks.

Ban was standing over Yamato's lifeless body, his hand covered in blood that
obviously came from the gaping wound in the center of her brother's chest. She
blinked in disbelief. How could he?! How could he betray them that way?! She
wanted to shout those things at him, wanted to attack him, wanted to make him
pay.

Instead she only screamed.

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Kadsuki could feel the flames surrounding him, singing his kimono, burning
his hands as he attempted to shield his face. Where was his mother? Where was....a
hand extended toward him through a break in the flames, and he grabbed it desperately,
allowing himself to be pulled to the other side. Jubei urgently beat off a few
small flames that had sprouted on his kimono.

"This way!" he shouted, pulling Kadsuki through the flames and the
carnage around them. Kadsuki was crying now, trying not to look around him,
trying to focus on Jubei leading him out to safety. But he couldn't just leave
everyone and run like a coward...

Kadsuki shook out of Jubei's grip. "Mother!" he shouted, running
back toward the flames. He ran toward the main house, Jubei close behind him.

"Kadsuki!" Jubei shouted, trying to catch up to him. But it was no
use: Kadsuki was faster, and a building had just exploded, barring his way with
wreckage.

"Mother!" Kadsuki shouted. Finally he caught a glimpse of her, standing
in front of the main house. Her bells were poised in her hand, and she was concentrating
on something in the distance. Kadsuki ran up to her and grabbed her side, recoiling
slightly as her kimono started to fall apart in his hand.

"Run away, Kadsuki," she told him calmly, looking down at him.

Kadsuki shook his head and looked up at her again, more tears springing to
his eyes. "No Mother! I can't run away! I can't leave you alone!"
he told her firmly.

She shook her head at him. "You have to protect our family line,"
she told him.

Kadsuki tried to grab her kimono again. This time it didn't fall apart. "But
where will I go?" he choked out.

"To Mugenjyou," she said simply. She began to walk away and Kadsuki's
grip on her kimono slipped.

"Wait! Mother, don't!" Kadsuki screamed, but before he could run
after her a hand grabbed his wrist.

"Come on! We have to get out of here!" Jubei told him urgently, running
in the opposite direction of where Kadsuki's mother had went.

"No! Wait!" Kadsuki screamed. "Mother! No!'

Kadsuki finally managed to shake out of Jubei's grasp and turn around...in
time to see the building his mother had gone in collapse. He screamed as Jubei
pulled him closer to him to shield him from the red-hot ashes that spread in
the wake of the collapsing structure. Kadsuki was sobbing as he released him,
but Jubei only took his hand and began to run again, leading them both far away...

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

The night was alive with the din of buzzing insects, peircing whistles, wounded
animals crying out in pain, and humans shouting and screaming. Shido could ignore
painful beestings and horsefly bites. He could dodge the wasps and even shake
off the spiders attempting to crawl up his legs. But it pained him more than
anything to watch his dearest friends, human or otherwise, falling around him,
knowing there was nothing he could do.

Shido heard a pained moan from near him and ran over to the source of it. A
man, not much older than himself, someone he recognized, someone who had grown
up with him and faced the same hardships, now lie on the ground. Tiny but probably
poisonous spiders crawled out of his pantlegs and headed toward Shido, but with
a whistle a flock of birds swooped down to pick them off one by one.

The man looked at Shido pitifully, his breathing shallow. His eyes suddenly
rolled back and his breathing ceased. Shido looked down at the dead man for
a moment, then back up. Standing at the mouth of the forest as the man he knew
as Higumono Kirihito. He clenched his teeth and his fists, and summoning up
his last dregs of energy, ignoring the insects stinging his skin viciously,
he charged his opponent with everything he had....

~*~*~*~*~*~*~

Ban blinked, feeling slightly dazed. He had hoped that by using his jagan at
the same time as Solomon he could cancel out the effect. The moment he realized
that the boy had it he also realized it was weaker. It had more limitations,
and was also less powerful, seeing that it was only in one eye. That in and
of itself was a rarity, and it actually frightened Ban. Being that the Evil
Eye was a metaphysical condition, one either had it or they didn't. Where they
got it might differ, but that basic rule remained the same. The only way a curse
could be weakened in someone was if another curse of equal or greater power
were used on the same person.

Ban examined his surroundings. He slowly realized he was still in Solomon's
room. However, everyone else was gone, as were all of the toys. The murals were
far less garish. Crouched in the corner, crying, was Solomon, his tiny body
shaking with each violent sob.

"Solomon?" Ban asked, softly, daring to approach the boy. At first
Solomon shrunk away from him, but looking up into the man's eyes with his own
tear-filled ones he stopped making an effort to get away from him.

"Don't touch me," he told Ban, though he sounded uncertain. Solomon
suddenly began to fade away, and Ban turned around. The bed was replaced by
a hospital bed, and a man was standing in front of it. Ban examined this sudden
addition to the scene. The man seemed vaguely familiar, his shoulder-length
black hair slightly wavy, broad shoulders making his body seem wider beneath
his white coat.

"How is he?" a familiar, thickly-accented voice asked, and Ban looked
at the doorway of the room. Wilhelm Grimm was standing there, her face worn
and worried. Instead of wearing her suit she was wearing a violet silver nightgown
and untied black housecoat.

The man looked up at her, and Ban immediately recognized him from his narrow
silver eyes. This was Amaya Hajime, back when he was healthier. Amaya was holding
a long syringe in his hand, and he roughly thrust the needle into the arm of
the tiny boy in front of him, who couldn't have been much older than two years
old. The boy cried out, but Amaya ignored him as he emptied the contents of
the syringe into his arm.

"He'll be fine," Amaya reported. "Although it might be close
for a while. I'll keep an eye on him."

The figures in front of them disappeared, and Ban turned around. Solomon was
standing behind him, grasping his arm and crying.

"That man hurt you?" Ban asked.

Solomon nodded and pulled up the black sleeve of his shirt. It was covered
in scars, some of them long and deep, others tiny indents like pockmarks. He
let his sleeve fall back into place, and Ban was suddenly full of hatred for
Amaya Hajime. The man experimented on and tortured children. He turned men into
machines and claimed it was a miracle. And then he had the audacity to request
that Ban end his life, as if he deserved to have his suffering cut short, not
to mention the memories that request had dug up.

Ban looked around. The hospital bed was gone again, replaced by Solomon's bed
once again. The murals reappeared, as did the toys and the writhing bodies of
the group he had come in with. Only Jubei was still on his feet, asking feebly
what was going on. The rest were finally coming out of the spell the Evil Eye
had cast on them, slowly climbing to their knees and their feet.

Kadsuki looked up at Jubei, then down at his hands in horror. They were burned
just as badly as they had been that night. Kadsuki threw himself against Jubei,
sobbing into his chest, and as he did this Ban noticed with shock that several
members of the group were injured. Shido was covered in swelling insect stings
and bites, Ginji looked inexplicably worn out, Emishi seemed to be nursing some
kind of wound on his abdomen that was covered by his clothes, and even Breda
was covered in cuts that were bleeding profusely, eyes wide with shock. Hevn
was sobbing in the corner, and Himiko had run over to a corner where a small
trash can was set up and was now vomiting between sobs, Clayman standing up
and ignoring her own tear-filled eyes as she went to attempt to comfort her.
Only Jubei and Akabane looked unphased, Jubei having been immune to the Evil
Eye because of his blindness and Akabane....well, if the vision he'd had had
affected him in any way he was doing a good job of hiding it.

"My, that was fascinating," Akabane said with a smile, looking down
at the boy in the corner. Ban made sure he was between Solomon and Akabane,
although he doubted Akabane would try anything with him.

"Ban-chan?" Ginji asked weakly, looking up at Ban pleadingly.

Ban looked down at Solomon, then at his fallen partner. "I'm going to
make her pay for this," he announced.

"Who?" Ginji asked.

"Wilhelm Grimm. She knew he has the Evil Eye, and she never taught him
how to control it. She let a madman torture him, and then she used him and made
her think he's a monster," Ban explained. "Her own son..."

Ban looked up and around the room again. Jubei was trying to examine Kadsuki's
burnt hands as gently as he could, which was more difficult than it sounded
because he had to rely on touch. Emishi seemed to have recovered and was trying
to get up again, supporting himself on the bed. Himiko had stopped vomiting
and was now giving Ban a look that he could have swore burned into his skin.
Clayman was still standing next to her, the tears in her eyes gone. Hevn seemed
to have finished sobbing, and Shido seemed to be ignoring his obvious painful
injuries as he stroked Jonah's breastfeathers, and Ginji was slowly pulling
himself to his feet as well. The only one who wasn't getting up or recovering
was Breda, who had her shocked expression frozen onto her face.

"But Ban-chan, when you use it no one gets hurt like this," Ginji
argued. He was standing now, but he promptly fell back on the bed.

Ban shook his head and lit a cigarette. "He doesn't make new dreams from
whole cloth. He brings back memories in a way so powerful the mind remembers
the physical as well as the emotional pain. If that's the case then the body
can't help but follow the mind because technically it's real." Ban sighed.
"If I wanted to I could do that, but most of the time I aim to distract
and disable, not to hurt."

"S-Solomon?" Breda asked, looking at the boy on the floor. Solomon,
who had covered his face, lowered them to look at her. "Solomon..."
she said again. Suddenly, she darted to her feet and lunged at him, knives in
hand. Ban grabbed arm and swung her around, forcing her back onto the floor
rather roughly. Her knives slipped from her grip, and she made no motion to
retrieve them. Her eyes were wide and blank as she stared at the floor, as if
there were something immensely interesting there.

Jubei finished assessing the damage to Kadsuki's hands and pulled a white needle
out of the sheath on his glove, preparing to ease the pain of the injury. He
was about to begin working on Kadsuki's hands when a loud, ear-piercing shriek
froze him to the spot. Everyone else looked over at Solomon, who had begun to
ramble frantically in German.

"He's afraid of needles," Ban explained, dropping his cigarette and
stepping it out.

"I have to do this now or his hands will scar," Jubei warned, running
the needle across Kadsuki's left hand, occasionally stopping to slide it into
his skin.

Kadsuki shook his head. "Jubei, no. It can wait until later. I don't want
him to panic again. We don't know what else he can do."

Jubei looked like he was going to object, but with a sigh of resignation he
put the needle back where he had gotten it. Solomon looked at him from between
his hands and stopped shouting, as if a switch had been flipped. One moment
he was panicking, the next he was completely relaxed. Ban regarded the boy with
curiosity, and the boy seemed to analyze him in return.

"We have to get out of here," Emishi announced after a few moments
of uncomfortable silence. Everyone else gave half-hearted gestures or responses
in the affirmative. Ban walked over and looked at the door, sizing it up mentally.
He knocked on it, and satisfied that it gave a hollow, wooden sound he motioned
for the others to stand back. Then he proceeded to kick it in.

"One problem solved," Ban announced. "Now let's finish the job
and get the hell out of here."

Ginji was up and walking again, and with some coaxing from Emishi Breda was
also back on her feet. No one bothered to pick up her knives for her. Kadsuki
had released his grip on Jubei and wiped away his tears, his face now a mask
of stony resolve. The only evidence that he had been crying was that his eyes
were red. As they all filed out of the room Kadsuki suddenly paused.

"What about him?" he asked, gesturing toward Solomon.

"Leave him," Emishi suggested, rubbing his abdomen to indicate the
pain that the boy had caused him.

"No. We're taking him with us," Ban announced. He looked into the
room at the boy and said something in German. He looked confused for a moment,
but slowly Solomon climbed to his feet and walked over to Ban.

"You can't be serious. What are we going to do with him?" Emishi
asked.

Ban shrugged. "Get him away from his mother."

"And then what?" Ginji asked, out of genuine curiosity rather than
to point out the flaws in Ban's logic.

"Then I don't know, but let's just take this one step at a time, all right?
We get the manuscript and we find the exit. Wilhelm only said that she found
Kadsuki's string. With any luck she didn't catch Himiko's tracking scent. And
if we have to we'll kick the walls in and make our own way out." Ban looked
around the hall. "But right now we need to find Wilhelm's office...."

"I know where it is," Breda said softly. Everyone turned to face
her, and she drew in a deep breath before speaking. "It's one of the points
I memorized. I thought that knowing where her office was would be a key to finding
the way out." She looked around as well. "Solomon's room is on the
fourth floor, as is Wilhelm's room. I know how to find the way to the third
floor, where her office is, but if we can find her room we'll find the master
map."

Clayman stepped up to the wall across from the door to Solomon's room. "We
should find the map. That way if the tracking scent has been eliminated we can
still find our way back out."

Ban sighed, then nodded. "This is turning out to be far too complicated
for a simple retrieval job..."

End of Chapter Eight

Goo's Notes: Still no beta reader. Any volunteers? And sorry this chapter is
so short and took so long to get out, but I am back in school now. Next chapter
is the last chapter of "Wilhelm's Manuscript". The good news? "Wilhelm's
Manuscript" is the first story in a trilogy I have planned! Rejoice!